Excerpts: In appendix C of this volume is a set of tables of the standard income series relating to agriculture on a national basis, which are published regularly by the Department of Agriculture. These income figures represent the totals and averages for almost 5 million farms and more than 20 million people living on farms. They are reasonably accurate figures based on methods and sources that have been developed during a period of more than a quarter of a century. The request of this subcommittee, however, is for information on the income position of commercial farms. As defined by the subcommittee, this group includes approximately 2 million farms which produce some 91 percent of all farm products sold. Here, our statistical base is weak. In fact, there have been no official series which represent incomes of commercial farms as distinct from all farms in agriculture. We have, however, pieced together—primarily from the 1950 censuses of agriculture and population, the 1954 census of agriculture, and the 1955 survey of farmers’ expenditures—a very preliminary and tentative set of data which roughly indicates the income levels and trends for the farm-operator families with which the subcommittee is particularly concerned. But it must be emphasized that these data are probably subject to a wider range of error than has been generally acceptable in farm-income estimates. This points to the need for an expansion of our statistical program if we are to provide better and continuing information on incomes of various groups of farmers.